Morning
Song
From eastern skies I now
See sunlight streaming,
It gilds the rockface brow,
Sets hillside gleaming,
Rejoice, my soul, and let your praise
be ringing,
From earthly home set free,
Through thanks and faith now be
To heaven winging.
Like countless grains of sand,
And without measure,
Like ocean depths unspanned,
Is mercy’s treasure
Which daily God upon my head is spilling:
His boundless grace I sup
Each morning from the cup
He keeps refilling.
He has throughout the night
With hosts of angels
My house and home sealed tight
So that no danger
Could threaten me and mine and
cause to languish:
I’m saved eternally,
From death’s dark path set free
And soul’s keen anguish.
My soul, be of good cheer,
Cast out all weeping,
Your body’s petal here
Is in God’s keeping:
He will today give me the
strength and power
My calling to pursue,
To give my God His due
At every hour.
Let God join hands with me,
Fill me with Spirit
So trusting I may be,
My calling merit!
O bless me from on high, Lord
God, I pray thee!
May constant faith in thee
And my own industry
Suffice me daily.
Today let no sin seize
My mind and blind me,
So what my God would please
I can gauge finely:
But should I go astray and
chance to falter,
O God, set me aright,
Don’t punish me outright
As a defaulter.
Thou best my wants and needs,
O Lord, discernest,
And fortune too concedes
What thou affirmest,
And what would serve me best need
not be asked for,
Thou knowst it long before!
My soul, why wish for more?
Let God be Master.
1 comment:
NU RINDER SOLEN OP AF ØSTER-LIDE
Originally a hymn with 16 verses, truncated in the Danish Hymn Book to seven of the first nine. The two early verses omitted are the original verses 3 and 5. I miss the former (A spineless worm am I) and the reference to being healthy in life and limb in the latter. The other omitted verses include the usual verses asking for God to look kindly on his offspring, Denmark’s king and Denmark itself. As it stands in the hymn book, this hymn works as a totality – the length is also appropriate for singing by a congregation. The opening four lines are beautiful, as is the transition from the beauty of the earth, the soul’s temporary abode, and the exhortation for it to soar to heaven with the rising dawn.
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